You can’t call yourself a feminist and deny women the right to make their own healthcare decisions. If you are anti-choice, you simply can NOT be a feminist.
Yeah, if you're a feminist, it is obligatory to support a woman's right to have her unborn child killed at her discretion. If you believe in the equal rights of ALL human beings, then you cannot be a feminist. You must believe that women's rights are above everyone else's rights.
Poverty rates are much higher for women than they are for men, which requires feminists to fight for the rights of ALL Americans, not just those in the top tax bracket.
If you believe in personal responsibility, and that poverty is mostly caused by people's own dumb choices, then you can't be a feminist-- because then you couldn't feel entitled to taxpayer money.
Ayn Rand had an interesting saying. She said if you want to fight poverty, don't be poor. In other words, make the decisions that lead you to not needing to depend on other people.
But that's just crazy talk in the feminist world. Sleep around, divorce, kill your unborn children, just do whatever you darn well feel like without any consideration of how it affects others or your future economic situation. Whine like a baby that it's unfair that you have to assume the consequences of your own choices. Smoking, drinking, drugging, living in debt, that's your prerogative as a woman and NOBODY should ever question the choices that led to your economic situation. That would be "judgemental". Judgementalism is ALWAYS wrong, even if it points to FACTS that would actually help you out of your situation.
A commitment to healthcare for all, better school systems, better childcare, marriage equality, AND reproductive justice, among many other issues, are critical to being able to call yourself a feminist.
In other words, you have to be a liberal.
Why people on the right insist on calling themselves feminists, I don't know.
Let them have their "feminist" label. Then marginalize them. So few people meet all the qualifications that if we all gang up on feminists, they'll never have their way. We're so afraid of being labelled "anti-women"-- as if a minority of women can define what's "pro-women" for the rest of us.
Feminism is an ideology. It's not the truth. Labelling people "misogynistic" is a rhetorical tactic; it's not a description of reality. The sooner we unmask feminism for what it is, without fear of reproach, the sooner we can stop the insanity and really help women. And men, too.
The other thing we should do is stop every feminist who tries to use "faux feminists" to make them seem like they're more numerous than they are. You know what I'm talking about-- those women who start off their statements by saying "I'm not a feminist but...". If they're saying "I'm not a feminist", it's probably because they dissent from feminist orthodoxy in some major way, even if they express support for abortion, or pay equity, or universal daycare or whatever.
Orthodoxy is a necessary part of feminism. Don't let anyone else tell you otherwise. It's a closed club, and anyone who dissents is out of the club.
